2012 Tech Predictions: A Look Back

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Prior to the end of last year, I made ten predictions for 2012 that I thought would come true in the technology sector.

Some of the companies mentioned were Facebook (FB) , Apple (AAPL) , Groupon (GRPN) , AT&T (T) , and a host of others. Public, private and companies that were public that became private were subjected to my musings about the tech sector, and the economy as a whole.

On a whole, I would say I did okay with my predictions, though not as well as I would've liked. Some I nailed, some I did okay on, and others make me think twice about quitting my day job and becoming a prognosticator.

Facebook Goes Public

Prediction:

This one is almost guaranteed to happen, as The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that the company is looking to raise $10 billion in early 2012, at a valuation of $100 billion. The social media giant will also likely be over the 500 individual investor mark by that time frame, and the Securities and Exchange Commission requires companies to file to go public once they have reached that number of investors.

Review:

Facebook did indeed go public, in one of the most hyped IPOs of recent times. It raised more than $16 billion, becoming the largest tech offering in U.S. history.

The initial public offering was handled extremely poorly, by all sides, including Facebook, the NASDAQ and its bankers, which ultimately led to the offering being considered a flop . Shares are down 25.9% lower than their offer price of $38, and even lower than where it first started trading, $42.05.

Though this one was pretty easy to see coming, it's still nice to get one pretty much straight on.

Grade: A (Would've been an A+ if I had the foresight in 2011 to predict the massive decline we saw from the IPO price, but I'll take it anyway).

Twitter Gets Acquired

Prediction:

Twitter has become the go-to destination to learn the zeitgeist of any given moment with people able to tweet 140 characters worth of whatever they feel like at any hour of the day, and the micro-blogging service could be approached by a number of different suitors, including the aforementioned Facebook.

An interesting possibility is Google(GOOG) . The Internet search giant launched Google Plus, its own social media presence in 2011, but may still feel increasing pressure to spend some of its $39 billion in cash on an acquisition of Twitter, which was recently valued at $8 billion .

Review:

Boy, did I mess this one badly. Not only did Twitter not get acquired by Google, the micro-blogging site is looking to go public, though does not have plans to do so anytime soon. The poor reception to Facebook's IPO may have hurt Twitter's prospects of going public sooner rather than later, but the San Francisco-based firm will most likely go public in the next couple of years. CEO Dick Costolo recently noted it's in no rush to take the public plunge.